Name: Scientists replant underwater forests to restore marine habitats | REUTERS
Uploaded: 2025-06-17T17:41:12.000Z
Duration: 1 min 46 s
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In the waters around this uninhabited Greek island,

marine scientists are replanting a forest.

They're trying to restore a species of brown algae that is crucial for biodiversity, but that has also been affected by climate change.

They are growing, they are actually like four to five centimeters long now.

Marine ecologist Politi Miladi says the reproductive cycle of the algae, Cystoseira, has been affected by warmer weather.

Which means that some, many, some years, they may not release spores, so they do not reproduce.

To help the algae thrive again, scientists at the Atlantic Center for Marine Research cultivated on ceramic discs.

Then they transfer Cystoseira seedlings to the reef at Gyaros Island.

If the forest come back, comes back, then all the animals and other plants that are associated to the forest will also return.

Marine ecologist Maria Salomidi emphasizes the potential benefits.

Where Cystoseira thrive, many, many other species can thrive as well, they give shelter, they give food, they give shadow to other species.

So where you have Cystoseira forests, you have the best diversity that you can have in the reef environments of the Mediterranean.

The initiative is part of the co-founded EU project ReForest, which is aimed at enhancing biodiversity in a rich marine protected area.